Ring winding machine



Sept. 22, 1959 c. w. BAKEAR K RING WINDING MACHINE Filed Aug. 6, 1956 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 22 J4 Egg. 1 7a A Sept. 22, 1959 c. w. BAKER RING WINDING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 6, 1956 Inventor CON/W)? W. Bake)" Sept. 22, 1959 c. w. BAKER 2,905,399

RING WINDING'MACHINE Filed Aug. 6, 1956 3 Sheets- Sheet 3 United States Patent i This invention relates to machines for winding successive iconvolutions of continnous material on any selected work piece and is more particularly concerned with providing improved means for winding a flexible strand upon ring-shaped articles. Although the invention is herein illustrated and described as embodied in a manually oper-ab le-machine for'winding Wire of very small diameter, for instance ofgage or finer, on a core which is likewise very small, it will be understood that the invention is not thus limited and the term wire is hereinafter 'usedto referv generally to any material in the form of a strand;

7 In the usual toroidal coil winding machine a split winding ring, or the like, isro'tatably mounted, uning being opened to permit insertion of the core to be wound and subsequentremoval of the wound core. Commonly, a ,peripherally grooved spool ring, containing in the groove a supply'of wire to be wound, and an associated guide -ring for vtaking the wire from the spool ring to lay it on the core, are both interlinked with the core to be 'v'vound, Clearly, when a strand feeding means extends through the central aperture of a core in addition to the strands wound and to bewound, the relative sizes of the core aperture and the winding means passing'there'throiigh will impose a practical limitation on the number of turns which can be wound. Since the strong tendency is to require that coils be as small and compact as possible, and/or that it be possible to wind more turns on any given core, it is often highly desirable that the core aperture be reduced, and especially that the nature of the strand .guiding and feeding means be such as to impose :no,'or-practieally no, limitation on the extent to which the effective diameter of the core aperture ,(i.e., inside diameter of the core less space occupied by turns laid) may be decreased. V a a a While the ,presentinvention represents a considerable departure from the organization of ring 'vvinding inachines known to have found their way into public use,

. in some respects the invention appears to be anticipated in partby disclosure made inUnited States Letters Patent -No. 751,816, granted in 1904, upon anapplication of A.'J.; S trong, relating to Process of Winding. Though 310 subsequent use and development of the Strong method is known ever to have been pursued, his invention does teach the broadidea of first surrounding the work with enlarged convolu'tions of material, due of the free ends :of themateri'al-being attached to the work and the other end attachedlto a convolution, and then separating sue: .cessive enlarged eonvol-titions and rotatingthe entire :set of said enlarged convoliitions so as to take up the slack material upon the'fcdntracting of the enlarged convolutions into't he smaller convolution's wound upon the wor In one aspect, and by way of'practical development of the concept just expressed, -it is an object of this invention to provide a simple, yet more effective, toroidal coil winding machine of improved construction, in which no' element of the machine, but only the wire being wound, passes throughthe apertiife of the'corefronr an- Patented Sept. 22, 1959 bobbin, the peripheries of said rolls Being disposed to guide a'p'lurality of'convolutions of wire for movement with respect to assume to be wound, and with respect to said'b'o'bbin, means'for rotatingthe bobbin, and mechaiiical means controlled by the bobbin for casting on flsnccessive convolutions 'ofvvire from the bobbin and said rolls whereby rotation ofthe bobbin is efiective to con- 'tract'and wind the successive convolutions.

The above'an'd 'otherf eatures of the invention, together with novel details of construction and combinations of parts, will now be more particularly described in conn'ectionwith an illustrative machine in which the inven- "tionis embodied and with reference to the accompany- "ing drawings'thereof, in which:

Fig.1 is'a view in front elevation, with a portion broken away, of a machine illu'strative'of the invention, and a 'cor'e'mounted therein to be wound; I

Fig. 21isaschen1'ticview of the core and the relative starting position of the wire tobewound thereon;

Figs. 3 and 4 are schematic v'iews showing equal lengths of wiregtheleng'thin, excess ofone turn shown dependmg in h1g3 beingjthe equivalent or the excess fj'the length from to B taken counterclockwise in "Fig. 4

' "over the "length 'ta'ken'frorn to B taken clockwise, and

said excess'b'ein'gsiibstantially the lengthr'equiredto co'm- 'pl'e'te'one turn'on the core shown in Fig. '4;

131g. 5 is a "viewin side elevation of't'he machiueshown inFigllr w Fig; '6 is aibottom plan view of a portion of the "bobbin 7 shown in Figsy'l andS;

Fig. '7 is an enlarged vertical section of theupper portion at the bdbbin'dium as loaded with a predetermined lengtharwirm be'Wound; I

Fig. "8 is a perspective view of a'core wound with a group ofturn's by'the illustrative machine; a a

Figs. 9, 10 and '11 are front views showing progres- :sivelythedperation of thebobbin drum andzstrand castingoifimechanism:associatedthei'ewith; I 12 isia detail'ldokin'g in the'direction of the arrow miner m t t h "Fig. 1'3is a front elevation of a portion of the drum, "the core provided with single turn, and a Wire being tensioned and kinked'by thedrum Referring to Figs. 1 and 5, the exemplary machine coin- ;prises a frame 20, 1 a rotary bobbin generally designated 22 supported thereby, ja an of guide ro'lls 24, 26 having'axes;parallel'to thatof thebobbin and independently inoiint'ed for-relativeadjustrnent on the frame, andjineans about to be described tor'suppor tingja work piece infthe "forrn ofia 'clo'se dcore28'to be wound with flexible mateir'ialslrch as a 'c'oppei 'wire 30; The core 28 (Fig. '1'"), is

zontal slot'finthefarni, Th'e' other end face of the core is engaged by a jaw 381a V-shaped centering piece;40

as is"b'or'edfreely tore'civea reduced portion bfajack 3 screw 44 (Fig. 1) threaded into the arm 32. A pair of parallel pins 46 secured to the jaw 38 slidably extend within bores formed in the arm 32 and thus hold the jaw against turning with the jack screw as the latter is rotated by means of a knurled knob 48 to carry the jaw toward or from core-clamping position. With the core in position, a predetermined length of the wire 30 to be wound thereon is initially placed under yielding tension, as by means of a weight W (Fig. 1) secured to one end. The wire to be loaded is then threaded through the core aperture, passed beneath the roll 24, upwardly and around the bobbin 22, down beneath the roll 26 and again through the core aperture, etc. until the predetermined length is loaded in the machine in the manner indicated in Fig. 2. The weight W may then be removed from the one end of the Wire which is then snubbed against the frame on a screw 50 threaded therein. The predetermined length of wire used will depend upon the length needed to complete a single turn on the core 28 and the total number of turns 1 to be wound thereon. In loading the machine, when a single loop of wire has been laid on the bobbin 22 and drawn taut as indicated by the fingers in Fig. l, the strand originally laid is fastened to the strand being held taut, preferably by means of soldering, a radially extending, marginal slot 52 in the bobbin being disposed to receive a soldering iron 54 for this purpose. The loose end of wire may then be severed adjacent to the point of solderting indicated by an X in Figs. 2 and 7. By rotating the bobbin in the same direction the wire was being wound thereon, additional convolutions of wire in the number required to complete all windings of the coil may be accumulated on the bobbin. A shaft 56 journaled in the frame, and to one end of which the bobbin is secured, has affixed on its other end a knob 58 adapted to be turned by hand to rotate the bobbin as desired for purposes of loading and for subsequent winding operation.

The guide rolls 24, 26 are similarly mounted on the frame, the distance between them being variable to accommodate different sizes of cores. Each of these rolls is closely adjacent to the perimeter of the bobbin and comprises an idler roll 60 (Fig. alined with a cam disk 62 constituting the rear portion of the bobbin 22, a wire-receiving hub 64 of reduced diameter alined with a recessed rubber wire-receiving tire 66 of the bobbin, and a retaining lip 68 alined with a circular drum 70 forming a smoothly rounded, convex front for the bobbin. For securing each roll 24 and 26 to the frame the shank of a screw 72 extends through the idler roll 60 and is threaded into the projecting end of a block 74. The latter is provided with a horizontal slot 76 through which a bolt 78 slidably extends, a nut 80 on the bolt being used to clamp or unclarnp the block 74 with respect to the frame and hence for positioning a guide roll. Four screws 82 extend axially through the cam disk 62 and its reduced hub supporting the tire 66 to secure the drum to the bobbin. Front ends of the screws 82 and of the shaft 56 come flush with the front of the drum 70 which is thus designed with a configuration intended to provide a minimum of frictional drag on loops of cast-off wire drawn over the drum face. The purpose of providing the recessed tire 66 in rubber is to facilitate rotation of the loaded turns of wire as a set, and without slippage, both during the loading and the subsequent coil winding. For assisting in retaining the turns in a groove on the bobbin a disk 84 (Figs. 1 and 5), rotatably supported by the upper end of an arm 86, may be superposed on the wire when loaded on the tire, the arm 86 being pivoted at its lower end on the frame.

Diagonally opposite from the slot 52 the bobbin drum 70 has its periphery formed with a shallow paying-out recess 90 (Figs. 1, 6, 9-77), an advance wall 92 of which is more abrupt and somewhat deeper than its trailing wall 94. A projecting apex of the wall 92 is sometimes termed a main hook or kinking book 96 in contrast to the apex formed by the wall 94 and termed a thin hook. The

front face of the drum 70 has its peripheral margin rounded, that front or external portion of the margin approaching the wall 94 being very gradually inclined and the thin hook projecting slightly from the tire to pick off a strand and thus to facilitate the casting off from the tire 66 of successive convolutions of wire by means to be explained. The rearward, or inner, peripheral marginal portion of the drum adjacent to the wall 92 is so beveled with respect to the tire 66 that the main book 96 will be effective to kink the successive convolutions when tensioned and being cast off for coiling, the radius of the hook 96 being short enough to provide a definite set to the kink in the wire but not so short as to damage or weaken the wire at the point of bending.

In commencing to wind the core 28, the bobbin 22 having been loaded as described, it is preferable that the wall 94 proceed clockwise roughly from its position shown in Fig. l to that indicated in Fig. 9, the finally loaded convolution being manually urged forwardly off the lip ,68 of the roll 24 by means of a spatula-like tool 98 and thus enabling the rising thinhook wall 94 and then the bottom of the recess progressively to separate that convolution from the tire 66. In Fig. 9 the tool 98 has shifted the wire from its original position represented by dot-dash lines (a) to a position indicated by a solid line (b), and the thin hook wall 94, followed by the bottom of the recess 90, thereafter acts to lift the separated wire into the vertical position indicated by the dash line (d). In this latter position the main hook 96 is acting on the cast-off loop of wire which has nowbecome tensioncd to impart a permanent kink 100 (Figs. 10, 11, 12) projecting forwardly from the plane of the loop when first loaded. The contour of the front surface of the drum 70 affords practically no interference with the separated convolution which is progressively being contracted and wound on the core 28. Fig. 10 illustrates how the kinked loop represented by the solid line (1) is caused, by the rotation of all the loaded wire turns clockwise (as in Figs. 9-11) inclusive, to contract from its position (e) in Fig. 9 and then to a position represented by the dash line (g). In this latter position it will be noted that the ofiset in the wire afforded by the kink enables the shortening convolution to be freed of the roll 26 and then to pass through the core aperture, as indicated by the full line loop ([1) in Fig. 11. At this stage of the winding, cast-off means controlled by the bobbin 22 automatically come into operation, as next explained.

On coming through the core aperture, the kinked portion 100 of the separated convolution lies beyond what is needed to complete a single turn on the core, but it is necessary to insure that another convolution will be cast off the roll 24 and the bobbin 22 to provide additional wire for winding subsequent turn coils. Accordingly, a cast-off lever 102 (Figs. 1, 5, l0-12) is pivoted on a setscrew 104 extending through the forked end of a clamping screw 106 adjustably fixed in the frame. A shoulder on the screw is drawn against the frame by a nut 108 (Fig. 5). The lower end of the lever 102 is urged clockwise (as seen in Fig. 5).'by a tension spring 110 connected to a pin 112 projecting from the base of the frame. An upper end 114 of the lever is thus held in operative engagement with a cam surface 116 (Figs. 1, 5, 6 and 11) formed on the rearward face of the cam disk 62 and adapted cyclically to project a casting-off finger 118 formed on the lever forwardly into the path of the kinked wire loops, as indicated in-Fig. 11. The progressive deflecting action of the finger118, as shown in Fig. 12, insures that the originally cast-off loop (and subsequent convolutions) will now be cleared of the roll 24 and that the kinked part of the separated convolution will be cammed forwardly from the plane of the tire 66 again to enable the thin hook wall 94 to take up slack in the separated convolution as it slides over the front face of the drum 70. Continued clock- Wise rotation of the knob 58 (asviewed in Fig. 1

results in a second and subsequent kinking action similar to the first being imparted to the wire by the main hook 96 (Fig. 13), the approximate distance of the second and subsequent kinks from the previous kink being approximately the equivalent of one wound turn on the core.

When the required number of turns have been wound upon the core 28 it may be unclamped and removed from the machine and may appear as shown in Fig. 8, the extending ends of the wire being severed and then connected to terminations as required. If one or more series of turns is to be laid on another by the machine, it is found that no added length of copper wire normally need be provided, the permissible tolerance in take-up, i.e., the degree of tensioning during winding, plus any elongation during tensioning, if necessary, making up the required difference. It will be apparent that other than manual means may be employed to rotate the bobbin 22 and that known mechanisms may be incorporated in the organization shown to provide for the counting of turns wound and for the rotation of the core about its axis, if desired, during winding, to space and lay the successive turns in successive coils on the core.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A toroidal Winding machine comprising means for supporting an annular article to be wound with wire, a rotary bobbin mounted externally of the article for holding a plurality of turns of the wire to be successively contracted and laid on the article, a pair of guide rolls adjustable one with respect to the other and disposed to conduct said plurality of turns through the aperture of the article, means for rotating the bobbin to rotate the plurality of turns of wire as a set, means formed on the bobbin to kink a wire turn in each revolution, and means controlled by the bobbin for casting 01f successive turns of the kinked wire to free them for contraction and winding upon the article.

2. A ring winding machine comprising means for supporting a core, a bobbin mounted externally of the core for rotation about an axis substantially normal to that of the core, said bobbin having a circular wirereceiving groove for holding turns of continuous wire and a paying-out recess defined by a pair of spaced radial walls connecting said groove with a smooth external face Of the bobbin, a finger movably mounted to cast off successive turns of the wire from said groove for winding on the core, and means for operating said bobbin and finger in timed relation.

3. A ring winding machine comprising means for supporting a core, a bobbin having a peripheral wire receiving groove and mounted externally of the core for rotation about an axis normal thereto, said groove being adapted to hold a plurality of turns of wire to be successively contracted and wound on the core, said bobbin having a smooth convex face a marginal portion of which is recessed to permit wire to be drawn from the groove, said wire turns initially having been threaded through the aperture of the core and over peripheral portions of the bobbin, guide means respectively adjacent to each face of the core, and means for casting off successive turns of the wire from the bobbin and guide means during bobbin rotation, said casting-01f means including a finger engageable with the successive turns to be cast off and reciprocable in timed relation to the rotation of said bobbin.

4. A ring winding machine of the type having a rotary bobbin mounted externally of the core to be wound, said bobbin comprising in coaxial relation a cam disk, a casting-off drum having a smooth, convex face provided with a paying-out recess, and a wire holding tire intermediate said disk and drum, and means operable by said cam disk for casting olf successive turns of wire from the tire via said recess for winding.

5 A machine as set forth in claim 4 and further characterized in that an advance wall of said paying-out recess is formed and disposed to kink the successive turns of wire as they are being cast off to be wound.

6. A machine as set forth in claim 5 and further characterized in that the trailing wall of said paying-out recess and its bottom are formed and disposed progressively to work each cast-01f turn over the face of the drum and into position for kinking by said advance wall.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 751,816 Strong Feb. 9, 1904 2,672,297 Harder Mar. 16, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 639,177 Great Britain June 21, 1950 

